away from such gracious offers. O "why do ye spend money for that which is not bread?" we must say with the Prophet to every worldly-hearted man among you; "eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."

Remember, too, though you have not a Prophet's company, you have in your homes a better, wiser, trustier guide, if a Bible be among your household treasures. Far more than Elijah taught his hostess you may learn. What the Prophet himself knew not is familiar to you from childhood. Christ's own words may sound in your ears when you have the heart to turn to the page on which they live, and His Spirit will make them searching, quickening, nourishing, purifying words. O prize the Book of God, dear friends, and feel that, while that is yours, you cannot be really poor. It is a light shining in a dark place; and while men, who are wise in their own conceit, wander they know not whither, the simple-minded, who trust its guidance, are safe and happy. Use it as a friend, and seek counsel from it often. You would think it a strange thing to have a Prophet by your side,—one able to teach you much respecting the hidden things of God's kingdom, and the common things of your own daily life,—and not put many questions to him to make you wiser. Let the Holy Scriptures be your daily Lesson-book, and pray constantly, as you read them, that God would open your eyes that you may see, and your ears that you may hear. Pray for the sober judgment, the tender

conscience, the obedient will, the softened, grateful, submissive heart. See how holy men have lived of whom the world was not worthy. See, above all, how your Saviour lived when He humbled Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant; yea, study His very words and tones that you may learn what living goodness is. Pray that He, your Lord and King, may "dwell in your hearts by faith," for these were His own gracious words, (blessed are they who hear and understand them; more blessed than the men and women who entertained prophets or angels in days of old!) "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

SERMON XII.

THE STILL SMALL VOICE.

1 KINGS xix. 11, 12.

"And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice."

(Ninth Sunday after Trinity.-Evening.)

THERE is something grand in the sound of these words; but the sense is not very obvious, perhaps, to many persons who hear them read out, year by year, in the course of our public services. The lesson they get from the passage is true as far as it goes, but is not so precise and definite as it should be. They are reminded that God is a great God, and a terrible God, and that He can, whenever He pleases, make His power so known and felt that man shall be utterly confounded, and ready, almost, to sink into the earth for fear; but why all this

was done just then,-what Elijah was to understand by these visible symbols of the divine Majesty,what was the parable, so to speak, hidden under the things which are here described,-and what in our own experience answers to the "still small voice" after the "wind," the "earthquake," and the "fire,”—this many do not understand, and are hardly careful to inquire.

Now, in handling passages of this sort, it is far better to be cautious and modest than to make quite sure that we know what God meant, and what His Prophets thought and felt. It will be much wiser to let them alone than to dogmatize on the subject as if the Almighty had taken us into His councils. But we may listen to the lively oracles, and should listen to them, with an anxious desire to catch every sound and note that our limited faculties can take in; and often, though some obscurity may remain after we have done our utmost, yet some wholesome impression may be produced, and some train of thought may be awakened, which shall make us feel that our time has not been wasted, but turned to good account. Scripture is profitable to us not only for what it teaches, but also for what it suggests. It instructs us in a way of its own; and many things that seem very foreign to us in some respects,―things which happened a long while ago to God's enemies or God's saints, and which are not at all likely to be repeated in our day,―do come home with a convicting power to some, and with a consoling power to others, so

that both feel that God is speaking to them by His word, and making it effectual for "correction" or "instruction in righteousness."

We must remember Elijah's position at this time, and his recent history. He was on Mount Horeb, in a cave, by himself. Lately, he stood on Mount Carmel face to face with Ahab, the false-hearted king of Israel, and four hundred of Baal's prophets. Then he challenged the whole army of them in God's name; now he is hiding himself for fear, giving all up for lost, and concluding rashly that not a faithful man is left in Israel beside himself. Before the crowd, he was full of energy and zeal; danger did not daunt him, but only seemed to call forth all that was most noble in his character; in his solitude, his prayer for himself is that he might die, as if the world wanted him no longer, or as if all his labours to mend it were spent in vain. In the interval, no doubt, he had been bitterly disappointed and mortified. Nothing seemed to have come of his recent triumph. The people were not reformed; the land was not cleared of idolatry; the wicked Jezebel was thirsting for revenge, and Ahab, though a king in name, was as much her slave as ever; whereas Elijah expected probably, after the false God and his priests had been put to shame so publicly, that the whole face of things would have been changed at once, and that all Israel would give him honour for the part which he had borne in calling them back to the service of Jehovah.